Essay: Web of Responsibility
by Dante de Troy
Summary: An essay on personal responsiblity in post WTC America


"In recent years we as a people have been tribalized and factionalized by a thousand casual unkindnesses. But in this we are one. Flags sprout in uncommon places. The ground made fertile by tears and shared resolve. We have become one in our grief. We are now one in our determination. One as we recover. One as we rebuild. You wanted to send a message, and in doing so you awakened us from our self- involvement. Message received. Look for your reply in the thunder."  
  
1 J. Michael Stracynzski, Amazing Spiderman #36  
  
A Web of Responsibility  
  
Since 1938, with the publishing of the first true super-hero comic book, Actions Comics #1, featuring the first adventure of Superman, America has been obsessed with the idea of these larger than life heroes. Every ten years the comic book industry seems to reinvent itself to fit the trends of the time. In 1963, Stan Lee of Marvel Comics set out to create a new kind of character. Moving away from the larger-than-life ideal of super heroes like Superman, he created a character that, out of costume and in costume, suffered the same trials and tribulations of daily life that every average person in the country did. Thus was born Peter Parker: the Amazing Spiderman. In Lee's mind, the character behind the mask was the far more important element of the story, and that is what has made him a vital part of American pop culture. For the past 39 years, Stan Lee's creation has dealt with every major social issue to approach society. He has had to cope with a marijuana-addicted roommate, the changes imposed by the sexual revolution and the Vietnam War, the drug epidemics of the 80s, and most recently, the collapse of the World Trade Center.  
  
Mere days after the world-shaking destruction of 1 World Trade Center, Marvel Comics put issue #36 of The Amazing Spider-Man on the newsstands and into comic book stores around the world. Featuring a solid black cover marred only by the title, this issue approached the only subject that was on the minds of its readers, that of the WTC collapse and the consequences. Spider-Man is the one hero who has a truly unique relationship with these events. He is the one hero who has always been the closest to the ordinary man. He is the one hero whose life remains firmly rooted in reality, and he is the one hero who is a born-and-bred New Yorker. The most important thing linking him to these events, however, is the credo that has defined the character since its inception. The thing that has made Spider-Man a hero has been the simple piece of advice that he received as a youth, from lips of his late Uncle Ben: "With great power comes great responsibility." This, in the minds of those who write the book, and those who read it, is what makes Spider-Man the hero that he is. In any number of adventures, the one thing that puts him in peril but, at the same time, pulls him through, is his unwavering devotion to using his abilities to help those who cannot help themselves. It is that which is the essence of responsibility, doing what you can with what you have to accomplish as much as you can. That is responsibility.  
  
Issue 36 takes things beyond merely the world of fiction that Spider- Man lives in and applies the concepts of personal responsibility, that have driven the character, to the normal person. The issue is fraught with praise for those that the author, J. Michael Straczynski, call "Ordinary men. Ordinary women. Made extraordinary by acts of compassion. And courage. And terrible sacrifice." He is referring, of course, to those people who helped victims after the fact. Those people who raced into the ruins to help find survivors. And those brave souls who, in their last moments, chose to take their fates and the fate of others into their own hands when they managed to retake their plane from the terrorists who had hijacked it. The message that Straczynski, through Spider-Man, is trying to send is simple. This responsibility does not apply only to those characters of fiction with powers beyond those of mortal men, but to everyone. History is made and lives are saved by those who choose to do everything they can in the face of staggering odds. He makes it clear that responsibility for man and men rests with every man. It is the responsibility of every person to be answerable to the world around them.  
  
"What do we tell the children? Do we tell them evil is a foreign face? No. The evil is the thought behind the face. And it can look just like yours. Do we tell them evil is tangible, with defined borders and names and geometries and destinies? No. They will have nightmares enough. Perhaps we will tell them that we are sorry. Sorry that we were not able to deliver unto them the world we wished them to have. That our eagerness to shout is not the eagerness of our willingness to listen. That the burdens of distant people are the responsibility of all men and women of conscience. Of their burdens will one day become our tragedy."  
  
It is that which is the true message of this work of art in this genre. Responsibility is not limited to your neighbor or your family, but to everyone, because we are all interconnected. In this new world, by Straczynski's vision, it is the normal people who will change the world for the better. Through the trials that they are being put through now, they will be made into the heroes that stories are written about. It will be you and me, "You. The human being singular. You who are nobler than you know stronger than you think. You, the heroes of this moment chosen out of history."  
  
Straczynski's story calls on the people of America, not only to stand up for their country and unite, but to do it in a truly heroic way. The outcry of hate and anger that followed the horrific acts of September 11th shocked many, disgusted some, and made sense to a few. In Issue 36, Straczynski calls on the people to take the way in which this crisis will be handled into their own hands. He uses the voice of those fictional heroes to call out to the ordinary men and women who will decide the future.  
  
"We could not see it coming. No one could. We could not stop it. No one could. But we are here, now. With you. Today. Tomorrow. And the day after. We live in each blow you strike for infinite justice, but always in the hope of infinite wisdom. Because we live as well in the quiet turning of your conscience. The voice that says all wars have innocents. The voice that says you are a kind and merciful people. The voice that says do not do as they do, or the war is lost before it is even begun. Do not let that knowledge be washed away in blood."  
  
Straczynski calls, at the height of a nation's anger, for tempering of justice with wisdom. He reminds the people that they must not become that which they hate, that they must not march blindly off to fight faceless foes; that those foes have faces, names, and lives.  
  
"With great power comes great responsibility." It is unlikely that Stan Lee knew on whatever day, over forty years ago, when he first put pen to paper to create the Spectacular Spiderman, that his character would become a force great enough to send a message to the entire world. In his own way, J. Michael Straczynksi has become the embodiment of Lee's ideal. He is an ordinary man, but a man with a gift for words and storytelling. While he could not lift girders on his back, personally carry men, women, and children from the wreckage of the shattered towers, or fly off to confront those responsible for the horrors, he did what he was able to help the nation begin to heal. He sent a message of pride, unity, and strength. He reminded the world that war is not without cost. He called to mind the humanity that exists even on the face of an enemy. He made the world realize that now is the time to be heroic. That now is the time for men and women to stand for what they believe in, but to do it with wisdom. J. Michael Straczynski uses his power, the power of the pen, to send his message and that message is just as important as anything that his web- slinging puppet has ever accomplished. 


End file.
